Wed 12/3-Sun 12/7

Tue 12/9 and Wed 12/10

It was big news when the staff who created Baldwin Wallace University’s nationally acclaimed music theatre program decamped for parts west — Oberlin College, specifically — to start up a new music theater program there. It’s headed by Victoria Bussert, who led the BW program, and who has directed more than 500 productions locally, across the country and globally.

It’s the first season for the program, and it’s about to present its first show, with Bussert directing, and assistant professors Matthew Webb (music director) and Alex Sanchez (choreographer) working with her to mount the show. The show Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, which debuted in 2012 and ran for nearly a year on Broadway in 2016-17.

The sung-through “electropop opera,” written and composed by Dave Malloy, has some unusual source material: a 70-page section of Leo Tolstoy’s weighty novel War and Peace, published in 186, dealing with romantic complications of multiple characters. It’s got a lot of meaty roles for the young actors to sink their teeth into.

The show will run for eight performances in the Wurtzel Theater on campus. Go here for tickets and information.